The simultaneous wastewater treatment and production of
valuable algal biomass enhances the environmental and economic
benefits of the process (e.g., Razzak et al., 2013). According to
Brennan and Owende (2010) the combination of these processes
will be the most plausible commercial application in the short term,
and is probably one of the most sustainable ways to produce
bio-energy and bio-products. Wijffels and Barbosa (2010) also highlighted
the importance of reusing wastewater with remediation of
the nutrients, as the production of biodiesel from microalgae,
requires approximately 1.5 L water/kg of biofuel produced in closed
systems (being worst for open systems where fresh water needs
to be added to compensate the evaporation). The annual water
consumption is in the range of 11–13 million L/ha assuming a productivity
of 40,000 L biodiesel/ha year